Go fund yourself

Most everyone is familiar with the clichéd image of the “starving artist.” The poet sleeping on a bare mattress, hands stained with ink. The misunderstood, disheveled genius with wild eyes, scouring the street for garbage to turn into art. The aspiring thespian slinging grub at a greasy spoon in order to fund their dreams of becoming a star of the stage.

The reality of becoming a viable artist/performer, however, is often not that sexy or cinematic. And the game is about a lot more than just talent and hard work. It’s also about resources and rigorous criteria.

When it comes to the visual arts, being successful often still comes down to resumes or curriculum vitaes (CVs). Gatekeepers need us to know the password. Where have we shown before? Where were we educated? Where have we performed previously? We might have pluck and vision, but can we write a grant proposal or appeal to established nonprofits for support?

Many of the gatekeeping measures are in place for good reason. One must earn their success, right? But what about when the playing field is not level, which we all know it is not. Then what?

Funding for the arts is probably one of the most complex subjects I’ve ever tried to even begin to tackle. But recently I decided that having this column might be a good way to explore how cultural funds are appropriated in California and how emerging visionary artists/leaders can sustain themselves in San Diego.

I’m going to use this first attempt, in what I hope will be an ongoing series of columns, to demystify funding processes. For this first column, I found myself wanting to explore the city’s role vis-à-vis the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, and how we as a community can try to advocate for one another, especially the under-served.

The Commission for Arts and Culture has the job of advising the mayor’s office on how to spend the (limited) city funds that are allocated for the arts. These funds come from the TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax), aka the hotel tax. It makes sense then that the Commission would put the majority of energy and funding into some of the bigger, more established nonprofits that choose to program exhibitions and events that will likely be attractive to tourists, as well as large scale public arts projects that will decorate the city.

To be fair, the Commission does play a vital role in distributing funds to some of the smaller groups and the Civic Art Collection that includes a variety of local artists. What’s more, some of the larger organizations do have a decent amount of support education and programs for emerging artists.

However, most of these opportunities are extremely limiting to an artist’s creative expression. Conceptually challenging and provocative art pieces are not exactly welcomed in this city, and safer, tourist-friendly work is often favored.

There is also the question of accessibility, especially to individual artists and emerging nonprofits with little startup money. Unlike San Francisco or L.A., there are currently no grants for individual artists in San Diego and emerging nonprofits have to jump through a lot of hoops in order to get funding in the first two years of operation, the time when these orgs need it the most.

“It’s a catch-22,” says RJ Brooks of Escondido-based arts organization A SHIP IN THE WOODS. “You can have a clear vision, but you’re more likely to get funding if you’ve been doing it for a while. You need to establish credibility.”

“We know there is a gap in our service. That awareness exists,” says Dana Springs, Executive Director of the Commission for Arts and Culture. “Finding ways to fairly and equitably service individual artists and emerging nonprofits is definitely on the table.”

Meanwhile, Perette Godwin, Senior Public Information Officer for the city, pointed out to me that the panel that ranks nonprofit funding proposals is composed of volunteers from the community. So it’s actually our job to get involved to try to shape, on some level, where the Commission’s funding will go. So when does this panel start soliciting volunteers for the Fiscal Year 2019 (which begins in Oct. 2018)?

“Sometime in October or November,” says Springs. The information will soon be up on the Commission’s website and Facebook page. What’s more, Commission meetings are monthly and open to the public.

I don’t envy the Commission for having to play the dual role of advocating for the local art community while negotiating with a conservative mayor. As CityBeat covered back in May, the Mayor tried to cut $4.7 million from the arts, eventually settling on half of that.

But inequity is apparent in the distribution of the funds the Commission managed to keep. Institutions that place more value on the classics and famous artists (most of them dead, male and white) often receive a huge bulk of this funding. For instance, an organization such as the La Jolla Music Society received $340,000-plus this year even though the organization raised roughly $19 million dollars on its own last year.

To be fair, these organizations often give back to the community via arts education programs. Still, Commission funding seems primarily focused on institutions that emphasize established “masterpieces” over homegrown, contemporary work. When this happens, the impact for local, aspiring artists can be diminished and work as a dissuasion to produce locally.

It’s our job to show up and advocate for the little guys and stay abreast of groups that support independent artists and artist-run spaces. And as unsexy as it might be, we need to play the game.